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Just quietly, the PM's here to lend a shoulder

Mary Alexander

Kevin Rudd flew into Warrnambool to visit Leon and Joan Davey at their home for a BBQ and talk about their lost son and his family. Photo: Damian White

AS VICTORIA prepared for a weekend mourning those whose lives were consumed in the horror of last year's Black Saturday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd quietly visited a family still coping with its own loss in Warrnambool.

Mr Rudd flew unheralded into the west Victorian seaside city to spend more than three hours with Joan and Leon Davey, whose son Robert, daughter-in-law Natasha and their two grandchildren, Jorja, 3, and Alexis, eight months, all died in the inferno on Bald Spur Road, Kinglake, on February 7.

Asked the reason for his visit, Mr Rudd offered the simplest of explanations: ''Personal,'' he said.

Mr and Mrs Davey met the Prime Minister at the first Black Saturday memorial service held at Rod Laver Arena in the weeks after the fires. Mr Rudd could not forget the family and its unthinkable loss.

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''He's been a great comfort to us over a period of time,'' Mrs Davey said. ''We exchanged Christmas cards and greetings.

''We had invited him for a barbecue and a good red. I had thought he might come when he was campaigning (for the next election) and I even joked about him coming in his ute.''

The family had only a day's notice of the PM's visit before a weekend that will bring sombre memories to families throughout Victoria.

He attended a private barbecue with the family, toasting, as Mrs Davey said, ''absent friends'' with a glass of wine named for her departed grandchildren, a Jorja Alexis. It was, Mr Rudd said when a local reporter encountered him, his first visit to Warrnambool.

Mrs Davey said the family was grateful Mr Rudd had spent time talking with them and looking through cherished photographs. Their son Shane, niece Christine Harris and her husband, Darren, also attended the gathering.

''He was very moved. The tragedy has touched him and he has supported a lot of the families affected.''

Son Shane, who knew only yesterday morning that there was to be a barbecue at his parents' home - with no hint of a prime ministerial visit - described Mr Rudd as ''a great guy''.

''It was all hush-hush, but it's good that he actually came over here,'' Mr Davey said.

The Prime Minister will be in Melbourne tomorrow to attend a multi-faith service at St Paul's Cathedral to remember the 173 people who died in the bushfires.

Before his journey to Warrnambool, Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio that the first anniversary would be a ''very deep'' and ''bruising'' experience for survivors.

Mr Rudd has declared tomorrow a national day of mourning with the flag to be flown at half-mast at government buildings across the country.

There will be a minute's silence at noon for the Black Saturday victims.